CHAP. XXVIII.
Intitled, The Story
[a]
; revealed at Mecca
[b]
.
In the name of the most merciful God.
[a] The title is taken from the 26th verse, where Moses is said to have related the story of his adventures to Shoaib.
[b] Some except a verse towards the latter end, beginning with these words: He who hath given thee the Korân for a rule of faith and practice,&c.
[c] See the Prelim. Disc. §. III. p. 59.
[a] He divided his subjects into parties;] i.e. Either into companies, that they might the better attend his order and perform the services he exacted of them; or into opposite factions, to prevent their attempting anything against them, to deliver themselves from his tyranny [1] .
[1] Al Beidawi.
[b] One party of them;] viz. The Israelites.
[c] See chap. 26. p. 304.
[d] Haman;] This name is given to Pharaoh’s chief minister; from whence it is generally inferred that Mohammed has here made Haman, the favourite of Ahasuerus king of Persia, and who indisputably lived many ages after Moses, to be that prophet’s contemporary. But how probable soever this mistake may seem to us, it will be very hard, if not impossible, to convince a Mohammedan of it; for, as has been observed in a parallel case [2] , two very different persons may bear the same name [3] .
[2] See p. 38. not. b.
[3] V. Reland. de Rel. Moham. p. 217.
[e] That destruction by them, which they sought to avoid For Pharaoh had either dreamed, or been told by some diviners, that one of the Hebrew nation should be the ruin of his kingdom; which prophecy is supposed to have been the occasion of his cruelty to them [4] . This circumstance is owing to the invention of the Jews [5] .
[4] See chap. 7. p. 130.
[5] V. Shalshel. hakkab. p. 11. & R. Eliez. Pirke, c. 48.
[f] It is related that the midwife appointed to attend the Hebrew women, terrified by a light which appeared between the eyes of Moses at his birth, and touched with an extraordinary affection for the child, did not discover him to the officers, so that his mother kept him in her house, and nursed him three months; after which it was impossible for her to conceal him any longer, the king then giving orders to make the searches more strictly [6] .
[6] Al Beidawi. See the notes to chap. 20. p. 258.
[g] This child is a delight of our eye;] This sudden affection or admiration was raised in them either by his uncommon beauty, or by the light which shone on his forehead, or because, when they opened the ark, they found him sucking his thumb, which supplied him with milk [7] .
[7] Idem, Jallalo’ddin.
[h] See chap. 20. p. 258.
[a] When the inhabitants thereof observed not, &c.] viz. At noon; at which time it is usual in those countries for people to retire to sleep; or, as others rather suppose, a little within night.
[b] The one being of his own party, and the other of his enemies;] i.e. The one being an Israelite of his own religion and nation, and the other an idolatrous Egyptian.
[c] This is of the work of the devil;] Mohammed allows that Moses killed the Egyptian wrongfully; but, to excuse it, supposes that he struck him without designing to kill him.
[d] He said, O Moses, wilt thou kill me, &c.] Some suppose these words to have been spoken by the Israelite, who, because Moses had reprimanded him, imagined he was going to strike him; and others, by the Egyptian, who either knew or suspected that Moses had killed his countryman the day before.
[e] A certain man;] This person, says the tradition, was an Egyptian, and Pharaoh’s uncle’s son, but a true believer; who, finding that the king had been informed of what Moses had done, and designed to put him to death, gave him immediate notice to provide for his safety by flight.
[f] Peradventure my Lord will direct me;] For Moses knew not the way, and coming to a place where three roads met, committed himself to the guidance of God, and took the middle road, which was the right; providence likewise so ordering it, that his pursuers took the other two roads, and missed him [1] . Some say he was led by an angel in the appearance of a traveller [2] .
[1] Al Beidawi.
[2] Jallalo’ddin.
[a] >Moses watered their sheep for them;] By rolling away a stone of a prodigious weight, which had been laid over the mouth of the well by the shepherds, and required no less than seven men (tho’ some name a much larger number) to remove it [1] .
[1] Iidem Interp. Yahya.
[b] One of the damsels;] This was Sefûra (or Zipporah) the elder, or, as others suppose, the younger daughter of Shoaib, whom Moses afterwards married.
[c] An able and trusty person;] The girl, being asked by her father how she knew Moses deserved this character, told him that he had removed the vast stone above mentioned without any assistance, and that he looked not in her face, but held down his head till he heard her message, and desired her to walk behind him, because the wind ruffled her garments a little, and discovered some part of her legs [2] .
[2] Iidem.
[d] When Moses had fulfilled the term;] viz. The longest terms of ten years. The Mohammedans say, after the Jews [3] ., that Moses received from Shoaib the rod of the prophets (which was a branch of a myrtle of paradise, and had descended to him from Adam) to keep off the wild beasts from his sheep; and that this was the rod with which he performed all those wonders in Egypt.
[3] V. Shalshel. hakkab. p. 12. & R. Eliez. Pirke, c. 40. &c.
[e] See chap. 20. p. 256.
[a] Draw back thy hand;] Literally, thy wing: the expression alludes to the action of birds, which stretch forth their wings to fly away when they are frighted, and fold them together again when they think themselves secure [1] .
[1] Al Beidawi.
[b] See chap. 26. p. 303.
[c] A high tower;] It is said that Haman, having prepared bricks and other materials, employed no less than fifty thousand men, besides labourers, in the building; which they carried to so immense a height that the workmen could no longer stand on it: that Pharaoh, ascending this tower, threw a javelin towards heaven, which fell back again stained with blood, whereupon he impiously boasted that he had killed the God of Moses; but at sunset God sent the angel Gabriel, who, with one stroke of his wing, demolished the tower, a part whereof, falling on the king’s army, destroyed a million of men [2] .
[2] Al Zamakhshari.
[a] Unto people to whom no preacher hath come before thee;] That is, to the Arabians; to whom no prophet had been sent, at least since Ismael.
[b] Two cunning impostures;] viz. The Pentateuch and the Korân. Some copies read, Two impostors, meaning Moses and Mohammed.
[c] We were Moslems before this Holding the same faith in fundamentals, before the revelation of the Korân, which we receive because it is consonant to the scriptures, and attested to by them. The passage intends those Jews and Christians who had embraced Mohammedism.
[d] These shall receive their reward twice;] Because they have believed both in their own scriptures and in the Korân.
[e] See chap. 25. p. 301. not. d.
[f] If we follow thy direction, we shall be forcibly expelled our land;] This objection was made by Al Hareth Ebn Othmân Ebn Nawfal Ebn Abd Menâf, who came to Mohammed and told him that the Koreish believed he preached the truth, but were apprehensive that if they made the Arabs their enemies by quitting their religion, they would be obliged likewise to quit Mecca, being but a handful of men, in comparison to the whole nation [1] .
[1] Al Beidawi.
[g] Have we not established for them a secure asylum;] By giving them for their habitation the sacred territory of Mecca, a place protected by God, and reverenced by man.
[a] Unless for a little while;] That is, for a day, or a few hours only, while travellers stay there to rest and refresh themselves; or, as the original may also signify, unless by a few inhabitants: some of those ancient cities and dwellings being utterly desolate, and others thinly inhabited.
[b] We were the inheritors of their wealth;] There being none left to enjoy it after them.
[c] See chap. 10. p. 169.
[d] They shall not be able to give an account thereof;] Literally, The account thereof shall be dark unto them; for the consternation they shall then be under, will render them stupid, and unable to return an answer.
[a] A witness out of every nation;] viz. The prophet who shall have been sent to each nation.
[b] Karûn was of the people of Moses;] The commentators say, Karûn was the son of Yeshar (or Izhar), the uncle of Moses, and, consequently, make him the same with the Korah of the scriptures. This person is represented by them as the most beautiful of the Israelites, and so far surpassing them all in opulency that the riches of Karûn have become a proverb. The Mohammedans are indebted to the Jews for this last circumstance, to which they have added several other fables; for they tell us that he built a large palace overlaid with gold, the doors whereof were of massy gold; that he became so insolent because of his immense riches, as to raise a sedition against Moses, tho’ some pretend the occasion of his rebellion to have been his unwillingness to give alms, as Moses had commanded; that one day, when that prophet was preaching to the people, and, among other laws which he published, declared that adulterers should be stoned, Karûn asked him what if he should be found guilty of the same crime? To which Moses answered, that in such case he would suffer the same punishment; and thereupon Karûn produced a harlot, whom he had hired to swear that Moses had lain with her, and charged him publickly with it; but on Moses adjuring the woman to speak the truth, her resolution failed her, and she confessed that she was suborned by Karûn to accuse him wrongfully; that then God directed Moses, who had complained to him of this usage, to command the earth what he pleased, and it should obey him; whereupon he said, O earth swallow them up! and that immediately the earth opened under Karûn and his confederates, and swallowed them up, with his palace and all his riches [1] . There goes a tradition, that as Karûn sank gradually into the ground, first to his knees, then to his waist, then to his neck, he cried out four several times, O Moses, have mercy on me! but that Moses continued to say, O earth, swallow them up, till at last he wholly disappeared; upon which God said to Moses, Thou hast no mercy on Karûn, tho’ he asked pardon of thee four times; but I would have had compassion on him if he had asked pardon of me but once [2] .
[1] Abu’lfeda, Jallalo’ddin, Al Beidawi, &c.
[2] Al Beidawi. V. D’Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Carun.
[c] Several men;] The original word properly signifies any number of persons from ten to forty. Some pretend these keys were a sufficient load for seventy men; and Abulfeda says forty mules used to be employed to carry them.
[d] This passage is parallel to that in the New Testament, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations [3] .
[3] Luke xvi. 9.
[e] Because of the knowledge which is with me;] For some say he was the most learned of all the Israelites, and the best versed in the law, after Moses and Aaron; others pretend he was skilled in chemistry, or in merchandising, or other arts of gain, and others suppose (as the Jews also fable [4] ) that he found out the treasures of Joseph in Egypt [5] .
[4] V. Ghedal. Shalshel. hakkab. p. 13.
[5] Jallalo’ddin, Al Beidawi.
[a] In his pomp;] It is said he rode on a white mule adorned with trappings of gold, and that he was clothed in purple, and attended by four thousand men, all well mounted and richly dressed.
[b] He who hath given thee the Korân, will bring thee back unto Mecca;] This verse, some say, was revealed to Mohammed when he arrived at Johfa, in his flight from Mecca to Medina, to comfort him and still his complaints.